Archive for November 2012

Okay, so I decided to tackle the tricky bit on painting white flowers on white paper and not make the flowers grey. Here’s my attempt at Margaret Stevens “Lilium auratum Virginale”. The tip I found most illuminating was to leave in a few pencil lines, even strengthen them a bit.

So, armed with new knowledge, I tackled these white cattleyas from the DBKU orchid garden. I didn’t see any name tag on the pot, but this cattleya is pure white with a peach flush on the lip. Holbein’s Shell Pink, unused for a long time in my paintbox, turned out to be perfect for that peachy wash of colour.

I think my flowers still look rather grey though! Still I will have to put white flowers aside for a while, because my deep pink phalaenopsis orchid has just bloomed for the first time – I have to get busy with my pink colours and get the flowers down on paper before the insect pests beat me to it.

The hoya with the largest bloom! It was quite difficult to capture the correct colour though, because of the waxy reflective surface of the bloom. In the morning light it is a pinkish mauve but in the afternoon, it shows more burgundy. I have depicted it as more burgundy as I have more time to paint in the afternoon. Morning light changes fast!

I used a hot pressed watercolour paper I found at Popular Bookstore ”Campap” This paper would be very good for painting practice, but to show the brilliancy of professional quality watercolour paints, it’s back to those very expensive European papers. No way around it.

Meantime, it’s a dog’s life –

Sootie waits patiently every morning outside the bedroom door for her human to wake up and take her for her morning walk